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Settlements by or on behalf of incapacitated settlors

For the usual reasons that apply to capacitous settlors – asset protection, tax efficiency, providing for spendthrifts, etc – it is often advantageous for the assets of those lacking mental capacity to be settled onto trust. Such persons often (suddenly) become wealthy by reason of legal awards. In addition, settling the assets of an incapacitous minor onto trust is a way to avoid undesirable succession consequences on their death under the intestacy rules (such as inheritance by an absent or even abusive parent) in circumstances where they cannot make a will nor have a statutory will made for them by the Court of Protection.

Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, Trusts

The Scope of Pitt v Holt

The law on rescission for mistake was reformulated by the Supreme Court in the case of Pitt v Holt [2013] UKSC 26. Giving the sole judgment in the case, Lord Walker explained that for a voluntary disposition to be set aside, the party asserting recission needed to show: (1) that there had been a mistake; (2) that the mistake was of “sufficient gravity” to justify the disposition being set aside; and (3) that it would be unconscionable to leave the mistake uncorrected. Lord Walker also confirmed that a disposition could be set aside on the basis that the donor made a mistake about the tax consequences of the transaction, which seems to have led to an increase in the number of parties seeking to invoke the rule.

Formalities and Amendment, Legal Practice
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IHT – When does the seven-year period start?

One of the most basic Inheritance Tax mitigation strategies is to make a Potentially Exempt Transfer  and to survive for seven years. It is generally well understood that if there is a reservation of benefit, the seven-year survival period will not start running until the reservation of benefit is removed.

Taxation, IHT

CGT Investors’ Relief

Briefing, CGT

Challenging the validity of a will

Wills and Estates, Family Issues
Briefing

Court of Protection documents

Court of Protection applications for statutory wills, lifetime gifts, and the appointment and removal of attorneys and deputies are likely to involve consideration of P’s dispositive and testamentary wishes, family relationships and dynamics, capacity, and susceptibility to influence.

Briefing, Construction and Validity, Formalities and Amendment, From the Courts, Legal Practice

Procedural concerns for trust accounting

This article considers two recent judgments given after the taking of trust accounts. The first is Master Marsh’s decision in Hubbard v Hubbard [2025] EWHC 855 (Ch). The second, Master McQuail’s judgment in Walker v Somboonsarn [2025] EWHC 1643 (Ch). These judgments offer rare guidance into the practice on the taking of an account.

Briefing, Family Issues, Trusts, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management
Wills and Estates

The proposed undue influence test in the Wills Bill

The Law Commission’s final report on modernising wills, along with the draft bill published following its consultation, makes several recommendations for reforming the law related to wills. While much of the commentary on the report has centred on the most notable proposals, this article concentrates on the proposed changes to the law concerning undue influence in the context of probate.

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Legal Practice

Executor and trustee costs in removal claims

There have been a number of recent decisions on the principles applicable to the costs of executor or trustee removal cases: non-exhaustively, Hanson v Coleman [2025] EWHC 116 (Ch), the memorably named Shufflebotham v Shuff-Wentzel [2025] EWHC 3321 (Ch), and Smith v Campbell [2026] EWHC 144 (Ch). They offer a convenient opportunity to provide a reminder of the general principles and how they have been applied.

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, Trusts, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management, From the Courts, Legal Practice
Trusts

The X Trusts and the “wider” implications for the trusts industry

On 19 March 2026 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in A and 6 Others v C and 13 Others (Bermuda) [2026] UKPC 11 (“Re the X Trusts”) handed down its decision on appeal from the Court of Appeal of Bermuda. The appeal settled a question that had divided practitioners, commentators and courts for the better part of two decades: where a trust instrument requires the consent of a protector before the trustees may exercise a power, but says nothing about how the protector is to decide whether to consent, what is the protector’s default role?

Trusts, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management, From the Courts, Legal Practice

Guidance on the court’s inherent jurisdiction to order disclosureof trust documents to non-beneficiaries

The Guernsey Court of Appeal has provided a helpful analysis of the court’s inherent jurisdiction to order a trustee to disclose trust information and documents to a third party who was not currently the object of a dispositive power, but who was the object of a power to add further objects to the trust. In BX v T Ltd and Others [2025] GCA 063 (20 August 2025) the court upheld the decision of the lower court refusing the third party’s application for disclosure, confirming the high bar that needs to be met for any such application to succeed.

Trusts, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management, From the Courts, Legal Practice
Taxation

Secret trusts and tax avoidance

The recent decision of the Court of Appeal in Lorenz v Caruana and Others [2025] EWCA Civ 606 offers an opportunity to discuss secret trusts in the particular context of attempted tax avoidance using the spousal exemption for Inheritance Tax.

Taxation, IHT, CGT, Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, From the Courts

Fiduciary duties

For those whose pulse quickens at the mention of fiduciary doctrine, 2025 has been a year of bountiful riches, with the Supreme Court handing down no fewer than three decisions in the field. In March, came Rukhadze and Others v Recovery Partners GP Ltd and Another [2025] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 329 in which the court was required to fend off attacks on equity’s hallowed “no-profit rule” from common law barbarian invaders.

Income & Corporation Tax, Trusts, Taxation, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management, From the Courts
From the Courts

Section 71(3) assessments: are they worth the cost?

Applications for the detailed assessment of costs by beneficiaries have been cast in the spotlight following the Court of Appeal’s decision in Kenig v Thomson Snell & Passmore LLP [2024] EWCA Civ 15. Tucker v Howe [2026] EWHC 208 (SCC) is a new addition to the post-Kenig landscape. The claimants challenged a bill of £147,436.33 and, after nine days of court time, achieved a reduction of less than £18,000. They were then ordered to pay, out of their own pockets, the costs of the assessment on an indemnity basis, assessed at £132,400 plus VAT.

Wills and Estates, Formalities and Amendment, From the Courts, Legal Practice

Promises and contracts

Several recent decisions have considered the potential effect of partnership agreements on proprietary estoppel claims made in the context of family farming partnerships. This article seeks to summarise those decisions and briefly consider whether they establish any principles of general application.

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, Real Estate, Ownership Arrangements, From the Courts
Real Estate

Signed, sealed and delivered

Canarapen v Gauchenot [2025] EWHC 2728 (Ch) concerns a deed of variation that gifted a share in a property. The party making the gift under the deed later regretted their decision and sought to revoke it. The decision examines both the formal and substantive requirements for a deed to be valid.

Real Estate, Ownership Arrangements, From the Courts, Legal Practice

Validity and enforceability of oral trusts of land

The Court of Appeal’s decision in National Iranian Oil Company and Another v Crescent Gas Corporation Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 1211 raises important considerations on the scope of section 53(1)(b) LPA and the consequences of non-compliance in the context of insolvency proceedings.

Ownership Arrangements, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management, From the Courts, Legal Practice